Alternative Bases of Source Selection

Dans un article précédent nous avons présenté les résultats d'une expérience concue pour mettre à l'épreuve certaines prédictions d'une théorie formelle de la relation interpersonnelle en ce qui à trait a l'émergence des anticipations de conduite lorsque plusieurs sources d'évaluation de cette conduite anticipee sont disponibles a un individu, Dans cet article nous formulons deux alternatives additionnelles qui sont théoriquement plausibles, les multiples prédictions em-piriques qu'elles engendrent, et une évaluation de ces trois formulations particu-lières à la lumière des données existantes. De ces trois formulations, seule la première est appuyee par nos donnees empiriques. Voici de quelle manière elle s'exprime: mis en présence de plusieurs sources d'évaluation l'individu intègre l'ensemble des éléments de l'évaluation plutot que de (a) choisir seu-lement la meilleure source disponible, ou (b) d'utiliser la source la moins bonne comme une ?source négative?, ou encore de se servir de l'évaluation de celui dont l'exactitude ne peut etre mise en doute. In an earlier paper we reported the results of an experiment designed to test certain predictions of a formal theory of interpersonal behaviour concerning the formation of performance expectations when multiple sources of performance evaluation were available to an individual. In this paper we present two additional theoretically reasonable alternative formulations, the different empirical predictions derivable from them, and an evaluation of the three formulations in the light of the existing data. Of the three, only the original formulation received clear empirical support. This formulation holds that when faced with multiple sources of evaluation, the individual combines the evaluations received, rather than (a) selecting only the best source available, or (b) using the lower source as a “negative source,” or someone whose evaluation is so likely to be incorrect as to provide an accurate measure of the correct evaluation.     

Category Distinguishability and Observer Agreement

It is common in the medical, biological, and social sciences for the categories into which an object is classified not to have a fully objective definition. Theoretically speaking the categories are therefore not completely distinguishable. The practical extent of their distinguishability can be measured when two expert observers classify the same sample of objects. It is shown, under reasonable assumptions, that the matrix of joint classification probabilities is quasi-symmetric, and that the symmetric matrix component is non-negative definite. The degree of distinguishability between two categories is defined and is used to give a measure of overall category distinguishability. It is argued that the kappa measure of observer agreement is unsatisfactory as a measure of overall category distinguishability.     

Foster child health care supervision policy

Foster children represent a high-risk group for physical, emotional, and social health problems, yet few federal or state policies explicitly address foster child health. This article reviews foster child health and the legal background for policy, then discusses components of a comprehensive health care supervision program.     

REMARKS ON OPTIMAL INFERENCE FOR MARKOV BRANCHING PROCESSES: A SEQUENTIAL APPROACH

Use of a suitable stopping rule yields exact uniformly most powerful tests and minimum variance unbiased estimators of various parameters of a Markov branching model with or without immigration. The population model discussed includes the pure birth, simple epidemic, immigration-death, M/M/ 1 queue, linear birth-death and a branching diffusion process, among others, as special cases.     

Statistical morphology

This paper first introduces a parametric model for the generation of stationary random correlated binary sequences. The parameters of the model include the probability that a pixel is a binary one pixel and the length of the structuring element which dilates the initially spatially uncorrelated sequence. The spatial statistics of such eroded, dilated, opened and closed correlated binary sequences are derived in terms of the spatial statistics of the input binary sequence. Understanding of such one-dimensional processing is a precondition for understanding what happens in the more interesting two- dimensional case.